A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to application development systems generally, and in particular to systems for authoring interactive multimedia applications, including applications able to communicate over networks, and applications embedded into pages on the World Wide Web.
B. Description of the Related Art
Since the advent of computers many decades ago, computer scientists have labored to build increasingly powerful computer hardware that is faster and cheaper to build than its predecessors. Today's computers can perform, in one second, many millions of "add," "shift," "load," "store" and other relatively simple functions.
To perform tasks of any significant complexity, however, one must somehow cause computers to perform vast numbers of these simple functions in some sequence. Computer software, in its most basic form, comprises programs or sequences of instructions, each of which directs a computer to perform the function corresponding to that instruction.
Yet, even as computers have become more powerful, developers of computer software continue to struggle to create complex programs without having to "reinvent the wheel" for each task they direct computers to perform. This need for "reusability" permeates virtually every aspect of software development, and is driven ultimately by the end user's desire for "ease of use."